Shingles

jane I've just got over an attack of shingles.( in my eye) I'd say that I felt more ill for a few weeks before than I have since it was it was diagnosed. Having said that mine was a comparatively mild dose as I'd had the vaccination last year. My eye still feels swollen and tender though. I would hate to have a full blown attack.

I was expecting visitors as well and I don't think I could have coped with it if they hadn't been family and happy to look after themselves when necessary. As it was I went to bed earlier and surfaced later than them.

I had shingles in July - I went to the GP very quickly, and he said because I had come in the first 3 days he could give me drugs (I think they were anti-retrovirals) actually that would knock it on the head and I would never get it again. I had it in the "sacral nerve" so in one spot only just at the base of my spine, to one side.

I recovered quickly but I do recall being "out of it" for about a week and I did feel tired afterwards for a couple of weeks. I'd say mine were mild though.

Is it true that you can only get shingles if you've had chickenpox?

So I was told. I had it when I was very young and the immunity only lasts 20 to 25 years.

It sounds from all your stories as if she should be fine, if tired. She would like to have her visitors as it can be ten years between visits, and they are family. I think I shall suggest that she get her cleaner in an extra couple of days a week while they are here. I'll bung her a couple of cakes to put in her freezer, maybe a casserole.

I had shingles seven years ago, the rash was severe but the pain was horrendous. I had it in my right side and down my spine. I was very ill for about six weeks and it left me feeling tired and under the weather for a long time. I had chicken pox at five years old and my first attack of shingles at ten, the rash was treated with a thick cream smeared on lint that was stitched on to a vest. I was off school for a long time and I remember the Doctor giving me a bottle of tonic, tasted like iron filings, yuck.

Yes, you can only acquire shingles from chickenpox. You cannot get shingles from shingles but you can acquire chickenpox from shingles.I was taught that one could only acquire shingles once but that is very untrue.

It affects different people in different ways- I was driven crazy with the itching on my chest but felt okay. If I had it on my face or more importantly in my eye I would be at my GP door asap.

Definitely can get it more than once, I have had it twice, thankfully, 50 years apart.

I've never had shingles, but then I've never had chicken pox. DH had shingles across his head and down the side of his face. He said it was very painful to begin with, and then very itchy. He worked throughout, and we went on holiday when the spots were dying off. He wasn't tired at all, just annoyed that his head and face looked funny.

I also had it twice about 40 years apart.

I had it several years ago, whilst camping in France. I had a small itchy place in the middle of my back and thought it was amozzie bite, so didn't get to the doctors until we came home a few days later, by which time I had realised what it was. By then it was very painful and I couldn't wear a bra for weeks. I had pain killers but it still hurt months later.

Yes, my friend has had to stop wearing her bra. I really hope I don't get it again. I had a feeling you could, because both of my children had chicken pox more than once, despite everyone - and one of the doctors - telling me they couldn't! Fortunately one of the doctors was more enlightened.

A friend of mine's mother got it on her head when she was about 70 and it almost drove her mad. She was so bad she had to be hospitalised and was ill for at least six months, so I do find it rather a scary illness after that.

The worst pain I've ever had was from shingles down the sciatic nerve. The sciatica was bad enough but the burning pain along the path of the nerve which ended just below my knee was excruciating.

Not something I'd ever like to endure again.

I was offered the shingles vaccine about 3 weeks ago when I was still 70. I had a drug induced rash on my chest so I had to refuse it. They only offer it to patients who are 70 or 79 so I now have 8 years to wait for my next appointment! How daft is that? I do not know if it is a money thing.